by lora jo foo | Special to the Courier

Trump’s job approval is plummeting. He’s worried about holding the House in 2026, so he’s rigging the elections. His most effective move to ensure decades of Republican control of Congress is the use of racial and partisan gerrymandering. Under pressure from Trump, Texas redistricted to gain five seats for Republicans. Missouri did the same, gaining one seat. In response, Californians will vote November 4 on Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, to redistrict to gain five more Democratic seats and neutralize Texas’ gains.

While the Texas legislature redistricted by simple majority without voter approval, in California, only voters can approve redistricting by way of a ballot initiative.

Prop 50 amends the state constitution to allow mid-decade redrawing of district lines for five years only, affecting the 2026, 2028, and 2030 Congressional elections. After the 2030 census, the Citizens Redistricting Commission resumes adjusting the boundary lines of the Congressional, California State Senatorial, Assembly, and Board of Equalization in 2031, and every 10 years thereafter.

There is another difference between California and Texas’ mid-decade redistricting: Texas’ is accomplished by racial gerrymandering. California’s is accomplished by partisan gerrymandering. Racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional. Partisan gerrymandering is not.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial gerrymandering, that is, the practice of drawing district lines to dilute the voting power of racial minority groups. To combat racial gerrymandering, states may create majority-minority electoral districts in which a racial minority group or groups compose a majority of the district’s total population.

The phrase partisan gerrymandering refers to the practice of drawing district maps to favor one political party over another. The Supreme Court has declined to find this type of gerrymandering unconstitutional.

Prop 50 is based on partisan gerrymandering.

In Texas’ redistricting, four of the five congressional districts whose lines were redrawn were majority-minority districts. The Texas redistricting plan dismantles these districts. It does this by cracking concentrations of Black and other voters of color in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, Harris, Fort Bend and other counties. The NAACP and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit to have the gerrymandered maps thrown out.

Some voters feel it’s wrong to engage in a tit-for-tat with Texas, that two wrongs don’t make a right. It took California 100 years and 20 ballot measures to finally secure our independent redistricting commission and voters want to protect that system. However, states with independent commissions are handicapped in influencing the balance of power in the House. There are only 11 states in the U.S. that have independent commissions. Eight are Democratic leaning. Without federal laws mandating independent commissions, these 11 states are left to fight on an uneven playing field. When states such as Texas, Ohio and Missouri redraw maps by simple majority vote of its legislatures, they create ever more Republican districts, resulting in their outsized influence in determining the balance of power in the House. California must undergo the expensive and uncertain process of voter approval by way of a ballot measure to amend its constitution in order to adopt mid-decade redistricting.

Greta Bedekovics of the Center for American Progress Action Fund takes the position that “Until Congress enacts a permanent, nationwide ban on political and racial gerrymandering, the states with these commissions should set them aside.” This is the only way to ensure states can meet not just this moment, but also the even bigger gerrymandering war down the road. House Democrats introduced HR 1, the For the People Act, which would have outlawed gerrymandered maps in all states and provided for independent districting commissions. HR 1 did not receive a single GOP vote.

It is the deepest irony that a Republican, Charles Munger, is bankrolling the No on Prop 50 campaign to protect our independent commission.

Prop 50 does not go as far as it could. It calls only for temporarily setting aside the districts drawn by the 2020 independent commission and returning that power to it in 2031.

Redistricting is not a political squabble or tit-for-tat between Democrats and Republicans; it’s part of Trump’s comprehensive plan to try to make sure he and MAGA can’t lose future elections. It’s the authoritarian red America trying to invade and overthrow the more democratic blue America.

lora jo foo, a retired labor attorney and organizer, has engaged in electoral and voting rights efforts for more than two decades. She was the AFL-CIO’s national coordinator of voting rights protection in 2004 and 2008, and currently leads Pilgrim Place’s Save Democracy Action Group.